


Remember When

by kelex



Category: Smallville
Genre: Alternate Universe, Established Relationship, M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2002-04-20
Updated: 2002-04-20
Packaged: 2017-11-01 07:35:59
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,784
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/353829
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kelex/pseuds/kelex
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lex and Superman remember when. Future Fic</p>
            </blockquote>





	Remember When

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to Rogue for letting me adopt this plot bunny away from her. I named him (the bunny) Beauregard, despite the antebellum connotations. The quotation is from _As You Like It_ by William Shakespeare; Act 2, Scene 7, line 147. //...// denotes thoughts. 

## Remember When

by Kel

<http://crystalshard24.tripod.com/smallville.html>

* * *

* * *

Warnings: Future Fic, AU  


* * *

Metropolis, 2022 

Lex was standing on the terrace of the LexCorp penthouse suite. He sipped from the wineglass in his hand and studied his skin. Flawless as always, now nearly resistant to injury... all because of the damned meteor rocks. //Kryptonite//, he corrected himself. //Just like Clark isn't Clark now but Kal-El, the Son of Krypton.// He didn't have mirrors anywhere in the penthouse, but he knew he looked essentially the same as he had the last time he looked in the mirror. //When was that? 2006? 2010?// Lex simply couldn't remember. He just knew it hadn't been in the last decade. 

Not since the last exposure to Kryptonite. He hated it, but it was necessary to his body chemistry. The meteor shower had mutated his body chemistry, and it was in a state of constant renewal. Periodic exposure to the Kryptonite rocks kept him from _over_ -renewing himself to childhood or beyond, not that it was likely now. He could probably go the rest of his life now without another exposure treatment. And that was fine by him. He hated the damn things anyway, for Clark's sake. 

And there was another thought that hurt to think about. Clark Jerome Kent. Draining the wine in his glass, Lex left the terrace. He knew that if he stayed out there much longer, he'd jump just to see how it felt to fall. Whenever he thought about Clark, he craved the adrenalized, hyper-sensitive, aware-of-every-second feeling that he'd had when he was around his young friend. Clark made him... feel alive. He settled himself into the overstuffed chair across from the terrace, and sighed. He missed Clark. 

Lex abandoned the wine and crossed to the bar in the penthouse. There was a whisper of breeze at the terrace, and then the heavy touch of rubber boot soles on the concrete surface. "Lex?" 

* * *

Superman hovered in the darkness outside of Lex's penthouse. The man was standing on the terrace, staring out without seeing, and Superman was glad of it. He often hovered outside of Lex's terrace, watching and listening. He always yearned for some sign that he might be welcome to land there, but every night, the glass doors to the terrace were secured and the lights turned off, shutting him out. Tonight, however, was different. 

Tonight, Lex turned from the terrace and left the windows open. The silvery-gauze curtains were whispering in the breeze, and he could not pass up the invitation. He drifted up to land lightly on Lex's terrace, wincing at the thud of his feet on the concrete. He wasn't sure of his welcome, though he felt no Kryptonite around. "Lex?" he called out, his voice unsure. 

* * *

//I must have done something right in another life... can't think of what it might have been!// was Lex's first thought as he heard the soft call of his name. "Clark?" His hand shook, rattling the ice he'd just dropped into the glass tumbler. He made a second glass of ice, but poured nothing in it yet. 

The Man of Steel let out the breath he'd been holding. "Yes. It's me." He was still standing out on the terrace, and his cape was billowing behind him on the breeze. He gingerly shifted his weight, hesitant to step uninvited into Lex's home. 

Lex moved back to stand in front of the terrace doorway, holding his glass out. "Would you like to come in?" 

"Are you sure?" Superman's eyes flipped from the drink in Lex's hand to his face and then back down to the floor. "I don't want to intrude." //Inane, inane, can we please stop this?// 

"You're not intruding, Clark." He gestured towards the large sofa and the leather chair. Lex opted for the sofa, and watched Clark settle into the chair. "I told you a long time ago, you could never intrude on me." He gave an awkward smile. "My businesses, on the other hand... you intrude on all the time." He sipped from his glass. "Remember when you used to visit like this all the time?" 

Superman settled back into the chair. "I remember. It about gave poor Dad apoplexy when he found out where I was sneaking off to. Even when he grounded me, he couldn't stop me from seeing you." He looked down at his feet. "I didn't think anything could." 

"Neither did I," Lex said softly. Then he cleared his throat. "You're looking well, Clark. Heroism sits well with you. Always has." 

Superman smiled, genuinely pleased. "It... means a lot to hear you say that." 

"Clark... I've been meaning to ask you something..." 

"What?" 

Lex fought not to smirk. "Remember the Metropolis Museum and the Alexander the Great breastplate in Luthor Hall?" 

Superman flushed. "I remember." 

"If I'm not mistaken, you told me that you couldn't envision yourself going into battle with that on your chest." 

Superman looked down at the golden, stylized S emblazoned on his chest. "I changed my mind. It just... sort of called to me. Sentimentality, I suppose. A _lex_ ander the Great's sigil," he said, emphasizing the diminutive that Lex had chosen to go by. "If I couldn't have you with me, I'd wear your mark on me." 

Lex didn't react outwardly, but inwardly, his entire body warmed in glowing happiness. "I believe it's that which led the charming Ms. Lane to christen you Superman." 

"Lois doesn't know everything, contrary to her press releases," Superman smirked in return. 

"Why Clark, snarking at your friends? I didn't know you had it in you." He settled back in the chair, smiling softly at Clark. 

Superman gave Lex a long, appraising look. "Time's been good to you too." 

"Screwing people over... the key to eternal youth." Lex meant the words sarcastically, but when Clark leapt to his feet, raking a hand through his silky black locks, Lex knew he'd screwed up. "Clark..." 

"It's not funny, Lex. Screwing people over is so _not_ funny." 

Lex couldn't help the smile. In that moment, he sounded so much like Lex's Clark it was painful. "I'm sorry, it was a joke. You just... you sounded like your old self there for a moment." 

"I never really changed, you know." Superman walked over to the bar, reaching into the bottles and pouring out scotch. It was a taste that Lex had taught him to appreciate. But he never drank it anymore. Sense memories hurt just as much as real ones, sometimes. "I'm just doing the same old thing, only on a grander scale." 

" _All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players,_ " Lex quoted. " _They have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts._ " 

"I hate when you do that, Lex." Superman threw back the scotch and poured himself another shot. "Whenever you don't want me to know what you're thinking, you fall back into quoting someone else. William Shakespeare, Benjamin Franklin, the Gospel of Lionel Luthor... whatever seems the handiest shield at the time." 

"I'm sorry, Clark, it just seemed appropriate, what with a superhero standing in my living room, drinking my scotch and reminiscing." 

Superman looked down and grimaced with distaste. "Excuse me a moment." He ducked behind the bar, and in moment, he rose, his suit folded and wrapped in his cape alongside his boots as he wore a pair of faded jeans and a checkered flannel shirt, barefoot. "It's sewn into a special pocket in the cape. Kryptonian design; I asked the AI in the Arctic Fortress, and the closest it could render the explanation in English was a transdimensional pocket. Whatever it is, it comes in handy." He remained by the bar instead of returning to his seat. 

Lex sighed again. Now he not only sounded like the old Clark, but he looked like him too. "I wouldn't mind having one of those," he said, trying to inject levity in the conversation. 

"I just bet you would," Clark said softly. "And six months after I gave it to you, you'd be selling them on the open market for twice what they're worth." 

"Touch, old friend. Touch." Lex drained his glass and got up to pour another. At the bar, he brushed against Clark, and bit his lip at the familiar tingle that jumped between them. Clark walked away, and Lex called out a question to his back. "Why wait so long?" 

Clark's laugh was genuine, if not bitter. "I wasn't sure I'd be welcome. I mean, I have laid waste to more than a few of your plans." He looked at the chair, and then chose the other end of Lex's couch instead. 

"A minor nuisance, Clark. Nothing compared to seeing you again." Lex schooled his features when he found Clark sitting on the couch, and carefully settled in on the opposite end. 

"I thought about it," Clark confessed. "I'd fly by, circle your building a few times. Every time, the doors would be shut and locked, and the curtains drawn on the terrace. I just figured that I wasn't welcomed. Tonight... I took a chance when I saw the drapes pulled back and the door left open." 

"If I'd known that's all it would take to bring you to me, I'd have left my doors open years ago," Lex said softly. He didn't know when the time for friendly banter had passed; maybe it had passed when he'd pressed Clark for why he'd stayed away. Or maybe when Clark confessed that he'd let a few thin inches of glass and fabric stay between them. 

"I never stopped caring about you, Lex," Clark said, his eyes meeting the stormy gray ones of his former lover. "I never stopped loving you. I just wasn't sure if it would work anymore." 

"You can't differentiate anymore, can you, Clark? I told you once that a Luthor lived his business, but you always told me otherwise. And for a while it was true. I made Luthor decisions--things were cut at the plant, but I didn't fire a single person. I used Victoria's scheme against her to acquire Hardwick Industries and Cadmus Labs. I used Cadmus and Dr. Hamilton to study the Kryptonite meteors to see how they affected people, but I was always still Lex to you. But now, after all these years, you can't separate Lex from LexCorp." 

"I want to, Lex. You just haven't given me a reason to." Clark leaned forward. "I want to believe that you're the same Lex that loved me so many years ago." 

"I will be, Clark, if you will be here with me. Friend, lover, both, it doesn't matter. You were my friend once before you were my lover. Can you be that for me again?" 

"I've always been that, Lex. I've always been your friend. Maybe not as good a friend as I could have been." He moved forward a little more and put his hand on Lex's pale arm. "Now that I know you still want my friendship, I will be here for you." 

"I want everything, Clark. I want your friendship, I want your love, I want you. I want everything that we used to have, and I know we can make it better than it was before." Lex couldn't close his eyes, but he wanted to; he was afraid of Clark's reactions to the demands that he'd made and yet wanted to hear his answer. 

Clark did close his eyes briefly, debating with himself a moment before using the hand that rested on Lex's arm to haul him in close. They were both breathing heavily in anticipation, and Clark was hovering over Lex. "I need you, Lex," he whispered, the words gliding over Lex's skin on puffs of hot breath. 

"You can have me," Lex replied, then completely closed the distance between them. His lips pressed against Clark's a split second before they opened wide, and Lex tasted his lover for the first time in almost fifteen years. He moaned into Clark's mouth, unable to help the needy sound that leaked out of him. He pushed against Clark, forcing the other man to relax until he could press himself against Clark's uncoiled body. 

Clark's brain felt as though it was sizzling as Lex kissed him. All the feelings that he'd thought were gone came rushing back: happiness just to be alive, shivering in anticipation of seeing his lover on the street and sharing a secret smile just for them. His hands rubbed and caressed Lex's body with long, exploring strokes, re-learning the texture of silk shirt over smooth skin. The kiss broke, and Lex was panting as Clark moved to nip his throat. "I missed you." 

"I missed you, Clark." Lex's fingers slipped through the silken waves of Clark's hair, his touch separating every strand and luxuriating in the feel. It took Lex a moment to realize that Clark was merely nuzzling his skin, occasionally inhaling Lex's scent as his lover played with his hair. He could be content like this, lying on the broad chest of his lover as Clark's face nestled into his throat, but his body wanted more. He slowly became aware of Clark's hands having moved from his chest to his hipbones, caressing gently, undulating Lex's hips against him. "Still have that fascination with my pelvic bone?" 

Clark's answer was a deep rumble of pleasure as he continued moving Lex against him. "Yes." 

Lex carefully disentangled himself from Clark and stood up. "Come on then; as much as I like making out on the couch, you've grown a little and cramped quarters aren't quite my style." 

Clark rumbled again and then followed Lex. "Aren't you going to shut the terrace door?" 

Lex turned around and kissed Clark soundly. "No. I've wasted too many invitations. That door is always going to be open." //Then maybe you'll always come back,// Lex thought. Then his heart stopped and his breath caught as Clark bestowed a sunny grin on him, a grin that Lex had thought never to see again. "You'll come back?" Lex asked, surprised at the words that came tumbling out of his mouth, unable to stop them. 

"I may never be able to leave again," Clark confessed. His voice had become husky and raw. "It tore my heart out after a while, just not being with you. Then I had to start getting into your business and shady dealings because... well, it was what people expected Superman to do. And the longer it went on, the less I felt like I was welcome here, and the locked terrace just seemed to reinforce that. So, as much as I wanted it, I got used to not being with you, and now... Lex, if we're gonna do this, if we're gonna make this work, which I desperately hope is the case, then... I don't know if I'll be able to leave." 

Lex kissed Clark again, rubbing his cheek against the rumbling throat of his lover. "The world needs Superman, and Lex Luthor needs Clark Kent. You'll have your job, I'll have mine, and at the end of the day, we'll come home to each other and Clark and Lex will have wonderful, amazingly hot sex and fall asleep together." Lex's finger drew circles around Clark's nipple as he talked. 

"I'd like that," Clark said softly, returning the kiss that Lex had just given him. "I'd like that a lot." He realized on some level that Lex was leading him through the kiss, taking him into the bedroom. Finally he gave in, scooped Lex into his arms and carried him into the bedroom--where he stopped abruptly when he saw the bed. The same bed that had been in Lex's bedroom in Smallville. "You kept it." 

"Sentimentality, but don't let it get out," Lex said, worming his way out of Clark's arms and turning his attention from the bed to him. "Take your clothes off, Clark." 

Clark almost ripped his clothes off before he remembered. Lex liked to watch, and Clark loved to be watched. He slowly peeled off his t-shirt, tossing it to the side as he watched Lex watching him. Lex's tongue was licking his lips, causing them to glisten in the soft white light of the lamps. He knew what Lex was seeing, but wondered what he was thinking. "Tell me what you're thinking, Lex," Clark pled softly, putting one foot up on the footboard while he slid his jeans down. 

Lex slithered down the length of the bed to kiss the top of Clark's foot, and then mouthed each toe, sucking and nipping each one before moving to the next. "I'm thinking... that you're the most... exquisite specimen... I've ever seen, Clark." Lex moved back to the big toe, his tongue licking around the nail before biting right below it. "Beautiful... sculpted from marble." He continued the blow job on Clark's toe, drinking in and cataloguing every whimper, grunt and moan that Clark gave out. 

"Lex," Clark choked out. 

"Mmm?" Lex asked, around one of Clark's toes. 

"You... ah... know that... my real name's... Kal-El. Why... mmm... keep calling me... Clark?" 

Lex let Clark shift his foot down as he slid his jeans down and off, and then slowly moved out of his briefs. "Well... Clark is the name that I knew you as. Clark is the name that you had when I fell in love with you. That makes Clark mine. I think I'll keep calling you Clark." Then he raised his head and licked a stripe up Clark's chest. "Besides, there's a candy bar that I used to eat all the time. Clark Bar." He licked down Clark's chest this time. "And I'm going to devour you, Clark Bar." 

Clark's growl this time was more playful than menacing, but the undertone was there. "You call me Clark Bar again, and I'll call you Lexy." 

Lex shrugged. "As long as you call me... I don't care what it is." 

"Mine," Clark said simply, and he was finally naked and lying across Lex's bed. Lex rose to his knees, and Clark stroked himself lightly, fighting the urge to jump Lex, maul him, and mark him. "Hurry, Lex, it's been too long." 

//Too long. I know exactly how long it's been, down to the hour,// Lex thought as his fingers worked the buttons of his shirt and sent it sailing over his head. Clark moved in a blur, his hands on Lex's hips and sliding the soft cotton slacks off, pulling silk boxers off and baring him entirely. Lex kicked them to the side, and Clark returned to his earlier worship of Lex's hip. "I remember when that could get you off, Clark," Lex whispered throatily. "I'd be kissing you, and then I'd feel your cock rubbing against me, and I'd move back just a little bit and you'd find that groove, and then it was no time before you were coming and sinking your teeth in my neck." He felt a tremor pass through Clark's body. 

"Jesus," Clark whispered. His body was reacting to the memories that Lex was narrating, his cock throbbing and seeking out that spot in the hollow of Lex's hip; then suddenly, Lex was moving under him and Clark's cock was trapped there, and oh Christ, he was coming and coming hard as Lex rubbed against him. 

"It's okay, Clark," Lex whispered. "I love making you come. I'm not going to last long either, and I want to be able to fuck you for hours." He reached down to grip his cock, and found Clark also reaching for him. "Do you want to?" 

"Yes, please, Lex. Let me make you come," Clark pled. 

"Do it," Lex said, and then bit off a moan as Clark's hand wrapped around his cock. It escaped him anyway when Clark's mouth moved down, and his tongue licked over the swollen red head of Lex's cock. "Oh, God, Clark." Clark sucked the length of Lex's cock into his throat, and Lex bucked his hips. "Christ, Clark, suck me _hard!_ " His lover complied, and the suction of Clark's mouth increased to nothing that he'd ever felt before. In less than three strokes of his hips, Lex was pouring his seed into Clark's throat and Clark was not swallowing so much as drinking, as though Lex's essence was the only thing that could quench his thirst. 

Clark slowly let Lex slide out of his mouth, and dove in to kiss his lover hard. Lex's mouth opened immediately to let his tongue meet Clark's, and then Lex's hands captured Clark's head and held him still for the deep, raping thrusts of his tongue into Clark's mouth. He devoured the taste of himself mingled with Clark, sucking and biting until there was no more left. Clark was whimpering, rubbing against Lex as he straddled Clark's thighs. "Do you want me to fuck you, Clark? Possess you like I did the first time we made love on this bed?" he whispered, stroking his own cock as it grew. 

"Yes...fuck me, Lex... hard." Clark was already rolling Lex out of his lap, turning on his hands and knees. Before he could present himself to Lex, he felt a hand on his shoulder. 

"No... not after all this time, not like this. On your back, Clark, I want to see your face as I'm inside you. I want to see you scream out my name when you come." Clark shivered as he allowed Lex to arrange him on his back, legs spread wide, hips elevated and tilted upwards with pillows. "You're exquisite," Lex breathed softly. 

Clark's chest heaved as he tried to breathe, but everything hitched in his throat as he lay under Lex's gaze. He'd offered his soul to every deity of Earth and Krypton if he could have this, and now that it was in his hands, Clark was unable to hold back the rush of emotion that had built inside him. "I love you, Lex. Please love me again, I'll do anything if you'll just love me again," he cried softly, his hands seeking Lex's. 

Quickly Lex's cool fingers intertwined with his, and Lex pressed fevered kisses on their clasped hands. "I do love you, Clark," Lex answered him, and then carefully separated their hands as he climbed over Clark and opened the bedside table. From the drawer he brought out a tube of clear silicone gel, the most high-tech lubricant that LexCorp made. His hands dropped it, and Clark caught the tube, opening it carefully and worshipfully anointing Lex's fingers with the cold gel that quickly warmed under their combined touches. Lex moved his slick fingers to the opening of his lover's body, and pushed gently. "Oh, Clark, fuck... you're still tight..." Then Lex's eyes widened. "You haven't..." 

"Nobody but you, Lex," Clark answered, his voice throaty. "Nobody but you." 

"Fuck," Lex whispered, working his fingers into Clark's body. He was just as tight as he had been the first time, and as he looked at Clark's face, the sixteen years had turned to thirty-six but the half-lidded expression of blissful addiction was the same, and Lex twisted the two fingers that were inside him. 

Clark's entire body jolted as Lex's fingers opened him, and then Clark sat up and grabbed Lex's wrist. "Fuck the foreplay, Lex. Ride me. Hard. Now." 

Lex grabbed the tube with nerveless fingers as he squeezed out enough to coat his cock with and then threw it at the bedside table, not really giving a damn where it landed. He placed the head of his cock against Clark and pushed, feeling the man beneath him relaxing and the muscle giving way as he was pulled into Clark's body. 

The feelings. The memories. Two bodies sliding together on a sheen of sweat. Two cocks throbbing against each other, mouths devouring and sliding wetly. Hands everywhere, not knowing where one left off and the other began. 

Lex's hands gripped Clark's shoulders, pushing him down, twisting his own hips as he stroked inside his lover. On every stroke he had to fight to pull back, the tightness of Clark's passage clinging to him like velvet. Clark's head was pressed against his chest, suckling Lex's left nipple as his fingers pinched and massaged the right. Hot tongue, wet heat, and Lex was melting as Clark teased him with licks and nips. He shook Clark off, soothing the wounded look with a soft kiss, and then he pulled Clark's legs around him. Clark quickly got the message and tightened his legs, his strength pushing Lex deeper. Clark cried out, unable to clamp down on the exquisite pleasure that knifed through him as he pulled Lex into his body. With soothing whispers, Lex calmed his passionate lover. "Sssh... you're mine, lover, I'm here with you now... you're with me." Each whispered declaration won Lex another bite to his throat, and then Lex found his hands clasped tightly in the steel traps of Clark's hands. The young superhero arched his back, lifting both himself and Lex off the bed, rubbing his cock against Lex's stomach. Lex was glad of Clark's hands anchoring him, and when he looked at his lover again, they were floating. "Clark?" he asked, stilling his strokes for a moment as he situated himself, knees braced on Clark's. 

"I can't help it, Lex," Clark gasped out. "Fuck, don't stop. I lose... when I'm with you I lose control; remember?" 

Lex rocked against his lover's floating body. "I remember," he whispered softly. "You said you were so happy you couldn't contain it anymore." 

"True," he gritted out as Lex started rocking inside him again, delicately this time. "You make me happy," he said between rocks, as he arched to rub his cock against Lex. 

Lex laughed, his desire causing it to come out in a throaty growl. Floating with Clark had always made him lightheaded, but in a good way. "I want to make you come screaming, but happy is good too." 

"Lex..." Clark sighed the name as their bodies floated over the bed, moving against each other in a sinuous twisting now that gravity no longer confined them. Lex clung tightly to the bigger man, using their twined hands to pull himself into Clark. He stopped his thrust short as both their bodies jerked. "Lex!" 

Lex's strokes turned hard again, brutally hammering the sensitive spot he'd just found. Clark's throat was corded with strain as he threw his head back, knowing his scream could bring down the entire building. Clark forced himself to let go of Lex's hands, knowing he'd shatter them if he squeezed too tightly, and guided them to his shoulders instead. He wrapped one hand around his cock and the other dug into his thigh, two things he could safely touch without fear of annihilating them. He jerked himself savagely, baring his teeth in growls as Lex pummeled him without mercy. Then he did scream, Lex's name tearing from his throat as he came in thick white spurts that scalded his hand as he squeezed every last drop from his cock. 

As Clark let go of his hands, Lex grabbed Clark's shoulders and pounded. As he felt his lover's orgasm start, his cock felt as though it was being wrenched off his body. Then he didn't give a good goddamn as Clark screamed his name, and then he was coming and Lex came too and he was screaming--sweet Jesus! Nothing was ever this good--not jerking off, not fucking faceless bimbos... only Clark was this fucking _intense,_ and he never wanted the orgasm to end. 

Lex's next conscious thought was moments later. Clark was merely hovering now instead of floating, close enough to the floor that Lex could slide off safely. "Shower," Lex croaked, and Clark touched down and carried Lex into the marbled bathroom. Instead of the shower, he turned on the faucets and watched as the water ran into the tub. 

"Be right back." 

"Where?" Lex couldn't even dredge up the energy to question Clark's departure in full sentences. 

"My apartment. Have to get something clean to wear because I can't fit in your clothes anymore," he said apologetically. "And I need charcoal." 

"Who needs clothes?" Lex didn't even think the request for charcoal was strange. "And there should be some in the sushi grill." Clark disappeared and Lex stepped into the bathtub, sinking into the warm water. He closed his eyes and listened for Clark's return. In the silence, he counted the ticks of the clock. He had gotten to two hundred and fifteen seconds--three minutes and thirty five seconds--before Clark reappeared in the bathroom doorway, decked out in Superman regalia. "You're back," he said, as Clark dropped a bag of Kingsford Charcoal on the floor beside the tub. 

"Didn't take long to get what I needed." Clark stripped, throwing the suit out of sight, and slipped into the water behind Lex, tucking his lover between his legs. 

"Did you get your charcoal?" 

"Yes." Clark's hand drifted down Lex's shoulder, caressing his chest in slow circles. 

"Um, Clark?" 

"Yes?" The smile was back in his tone. Bastard that he could recover so easily from mind-blowing sex. 

"Why do you need charcoal?" 

"To show you a trick I learned," he said. He reached down, ripped a small hole in the bag, and brought out a briquette. "It works better with real coal, but I'll have to get that tomorrow." He showed Lex the briquette in his hand and then squeezed it hard, watching the small pieces crack and fall to the water where Lex absently fished them out. He watched with his X-ray vision until he was done, and then opened his hand. "For you." 

A small but flawless diamond sat in the palm of Clark's hand. Lex dipped it in the water and sloshed away the charcoal dust, then lifted the sparkling gemstone to the light. "Clark... that's flawless." He shrugged, blushing. "Do you know how much a stone like this is worth?" 

"Probably half a million," Clark guessed. 

"Try priceless," Lex corrected. "To me, because of where it came from. But from a gemological point--" 

"I don't care," Clark said roughly. "I made it for you. If you don't want it, then fine." 

Lex twisted around and looked at Clark. "Clark... when I said priceless because of where it came from, I fucking meant it." 

"Then shut up about the gemologists and everyone else. I don't care about them, Lex. I gave you a diamond because it's about the only thing I can give you, not because it's pricey or whatever." 

"No. It's not the only thing you can give me." Lex turned around fully, resisting the urge to slap the man sharing his bath. "You could fill this fucking tub with diamonds and it wouldn't matter. Clark matters to me, not Superman's diamonds. If you can't give me that, then I don't need this." Lex tossed the diamond back at Clark, and he caught it reflexively as Lex stood up to get out of the bath. 

Clark pulled him back down. "Lex... I'm sorry." 

"What happened, Clark?" Lex let himself be cuddled to his lover's chest, and the diamond pressed back into his hand. "What made you think that you aren't worth more than baubles?" When Clark didn't answer right away, Lex drummed his fingers on his lover's shoulder. "Clark," he drawled. "Do I have to guess?" 

"Lana," he bit out angrily, jaw tight. 

Lex's fingers caressed Clark's tight jaw. "She hurt you, didn't she, Clark?" 

"Yes." 

"Shall I get the crowbar for the details?" 

Clark sighed. "She couldn't wait to gloat over the fact that she would have been a better choice than you when Lois' first article about LexCorp's dirty practices took over. Nor did she stop gloating until I told her to shut the fuck up and leave me alone." 

"What am I missing here, Clark?" 

"The fact that we were married for a year. And she bitched that I never touched her." 

Now that was a surprise. On both fronts. "Let me guess; you had a headache? Ow!" Clark had thumped him against the back of his neck. 

"No. I stayed away, either playing the superhero or the over-worked reporter." Clark sighed. "She was a nagging bitch, and it's a wonder Whitney never strangled her." 

Lex watched the ripples in the water for a long moment before he was able to formulate the question without jealousy. "Why did you marry her?" 

"After Whitney's dad died, he just didn't have time for her, and he ended up dumping her when she didn't understand. She came to me a little later and told me she'd always had feelings for me, but... anyway, she asked me to marry her. And... I did." Clark shook his head sadly. "I don't know why I did. I already knew that I didn't love her... but you were gone, and then nothing else really seemed to matter anymore." 

There was a moment of silence where Lex almost pressed for the details that Clark had left out. Finally, he decided that since Clark obviously didn't want to divulge them, there was no reason to shatter their new truce with questions. "And where do the sparklies come in?" 

"She wanted gifts. If I was working late, if I had to leave town on a story, whatever... I had to bring her back something, and the longer it went on, the better it had to be." 

Finally Lex understood. Clark had tried to make a normal life, married a high-school princess crush, but when the Heroism Complex reared it's ugly head, Clark had been the one to suffer for it. The princess had just wanted the royal treatment. "Clark... I think that I should give this back," he said softly, picking up his lover's hand out of the water and putting the diamond in it. "I don't want this if it means I'm not going to get you." 

Clark's grip tightened around the stone. "You already have me, Lex. I'm here. I brought my clothes here. I'm going to stay with you as long as you'll have me." He looked down at his lover. "We're not in Smallville anymore, Lex. I'm not going to disappear at dawn; I don't have to go home and hide from Mom and Dad. We're going to be able to sleep together." 

"I don't want anything from you but you, Clark." 

Clark set the diamond on the counter beside the tub. "You got what you want, Lex." 

Finally, Lex's trademark smirk came to the surface. "I always do, farm boy. I always do." 

The End 


End file.
